What gas price is too outrageous for you?

[Half-n-Half]

Sorry Souske, but I had to borrow from your thread .
Like the title says, what gas price (in dollars) is too outrageous for you? That is, at what price level would you say, "Enough is enough! I am buying gas no mas! It is time to break out the bike!" You're numbers don't have to be exact, just a range like, $10-$15. Also, what would you do if gas prices did get too high for you to afford? Would you ride a bike? Buy a Hybrid? What if neither is feasible for you? What if your workplace is 30 miles away and you cannot ride a bike to work?

As for me, I am not sure as I am not financially independent yet and have no idea how much it would impact my income. However, if prices did get too high for me to afford, I suppose I would find local business within riding distance I could work at. That brings up another interesting point. Would some cities become virtually deserted as no one has a feasible method to travel that far to get to work? Would the world turn into "havens" of business? I really have no idea, and I seriously doubt it, but it is an interesting topic to discuss. I have talked enough so far, so how about you?

 

[Mars Man]

Well, it's hard for me to speak in terms of dollars, but, as a kind of reference point, if we were to hold one dollar as equalling one hundred yen, I'm paying around $7.50 a gallon now. If that were to go up to around $15.00 a gallon, I'd seriously consider investing in a good bicycle.

If that were to again go up to around $18.00 a gallon, I'd probably stop driving almost altogether--only keeping enough gas in the car for emergencies and special occcasions, and running the engine from time to time to keep it in running shape. We out here in the country side of Japan, might start looking at certain farm animals again...like horses and oxen.

 

[Half-n-Half]

Well, it's hard for me to speak in terms of dollars, but, as a kind of reference point, if we were to hold one dollar as equalling one hundred yen, I'm paying around $7.50 a gallon now. If that were to go up to around $15.00 a gallon, I'd seriously consider investing in a good bicycle.
If that were to again go up to around $18.00 a gallon, I'd probably stop driving almost altogether--only keeping enough gas in the car for emergencies and special occcasions, and running the engine from time to time to keep it in running shape. We out here in the country side of Japan, might start looking at certain farm animals again...like horses and oxen.

See that is an interesting point. If gas prices were $7.50 in America people would be yelping! But, in Japan, things are a lot more compact, crowded, convenient, and gas efficient. Therefore, it is not as big of a deal in Japan to pay $7.50 when you do not have to go as far to get where you need to go, hence you won't be buying gas as often. In America, however, things tend to be a lot more spread out. I myself have to commute 30 minutes to work. So, I guess you are lucky to be in Japan where things are more convenient

 

[Mars Man]

It also might be good to keep in mind that the general economic scales are different; another reason for the comparison to not be such an accurate representation. I also spend 30 minutes in the car to get to my office here. I live out in the sticks, and there is no train station nearby.

 

[nice gaijin]

For me, and I think for many other people, it's a matter of necessity, convenience and cost effectiveness. Since I'm not in a dire financial situation, I prioritize in that order.

My current jobs are all within 5-10 miles of where I live, so I commute on a bicycle. Were I to commute in a car, this would probably be about 85-95% of my gas expenditure. Biking is good exercise, an efficient means of transportation, cheap and emits no greenhouse gases. It also can be as fast or faster than a car, depending on the flow of traffic in the city.

Of course, not everybody shares my situation, as I am in an ideal position to bike most places, so I am able to say that the price of gas is already too outrageous for me and I have adjusted my commute accordingly (I probably save about 60 bucks a month considering the current price of gas). For longer journeys, or if I have passengers, or cargo, there are few options other than driving. If there were a halfway decent public transportation system, this situation would be somewhat alleviated, but I can't yet completely shake the fossil fuel habit.

 

[Yan]

The gas price is growing up but our salary is the same. That's the problem. Anyway, when I will have enough money, I think I will buy a electric car. It's a green technology and I'm against all forms of pollution. The solution will never be found by the gouvernment because they just think about making money with gas. The population needs to wake up and to change their habits. We can stop the degradation of the Earth, don't wait until the gouvernment of your country wakes up (in particular U.S.).

 

[nice gaijin]

It's a green technology and I'm against all forms of pollution.

I would say "greener," since there are still toxic materials used in the production of the vehicle and present in the batteries. Also, if you are charging your car through a wall socket, that energy has to come from somewhere, and it's not necessarily green (this is the 'longer tailpipe' theory)

The solution will never be found by the gouvernment because they just think about making money with gas.

Does the government profit directly from gas? I didn't think that people were sitting around waiting for the government to do something about the environment, which is why there are so many companies looking to new greener technologies, and people are trying to put pressure on the government to tighten environmental regulation, and it's the businesses that profit from fossil fuel dependence that are lobbying against such legislation.

 

[Yan]

It's greener but it's not perfect, I know. I prefer to use hybrid or electric cars instead of using regular cars using gas. Anyway, the problem with electronic cars is that the price is too high. Same as all other new technologies, it's too expensive for normal people. They want to get a car at the lower price as they can. If the new electric cars are not sold, how can the price of the eletric car can go down? I'm not an expert in that subject and it's harder for me to exprime my opinion because of my poor English level ut I can tell you that we will never see more electric cars than gas cars on roads and highways until the gas price will be enough expensive to force people changing their car for a electric one. I'm not trying to explain that I agree with the outrageous gas cost but it can change the life habits of people...

 

[Kinsao]

We drive a diesel car, and the UK has currently second highest diesel price in Europe. The average price today across the UK is £1.318 per litre. Speaking from a personal perspective, this is hitting us (myself and my partner) really hard. Every journey we make, even if it is only 10 miles or so, we have to think "can we afford it?" and factor that into our budget. This obviously has an effect on what we can do socially (luckily we live in a city so there is a good social life within walking distance so we're not totally bereft!); also we have to plan our necessary journeys (those undertaken for purely practical reasons rather than for pleasure/leisure) in the most economical way possible. This does mean that we have to struggle for money sometimes and tighten our belts in other areas.

Before I acquired this partner I never had a car of my own, so I am quite used to walking, using public transport and not having much of a social life outside of my own city (bar the occasional trip to London or another major city). That has helped me be used to economising. Also my partner is keen on walking because it is cheap and healthy.

However, he does need to use the car to travel to his job, which he does 2 days a week but stays there overnight to minimise costs. The round trip is about 120 miles, which isn't too huge a distance, although the roads are often congested which drives up fuel consumption. Since he is spending a lot more time here, the amount we spend on fuel has gone down noticeably, which is great for us - but the rising cost of diesel is still hitting us very hard and making life more difficult.

I think it is great to live in the city and be able to walk to work, using the car only to make trips at weekends into the country or for social reasons, but of course there are some people for whom the car is integral to their job - e.g. community nurses, lorry drivers, and many other jobs.

As house prices are so high (okay, not rising now, but still high!) I can envisage a situation where we go back to the old-style city slum dwellings, with houses in the clean pleasant country being only for the rich, and the poor people crammed into sh*tty estates where they can walk to their city jobs. >___<

I forgot to say - if only public transport prices would come down! IF ONLY!!!

If I'm travelling peak time - which by the nature of my life I have to - it costs me over £22 to get a return journey to the UK's second city, Birmingham - a distance of 50 miles. With that kind of price, and the price of fuel, I am caught in a cleft stick, and soon will not be able to afford to travel at all. It is already a competition between travelling and eating, and my income, while not luxurious, is not shockingly low either.

 

[nice gaijin]

Here's a related article I just saw about how Americans are finally cutting back on their driving habits. I'm shocked that it has taken this long. Well, not that shocked...

Driving Less, Americans Finally React to Sting of Gas Prices, a Study Says (Published 2008)

 

[Goldiegirl]

Even Hybrids run on petrol/gas...so if the price keeps going up, eventually no one will be able to afford the petrol/gas. We need a different fuel source. I saw a show on compressed gas engines...I believe it was super cooled hydrogen or something. It was efficient, cheap and readily available. We need to look for alternative fuel. I just don't think a battery operated car is the way to go, but that is just my opinion and really not based in fact, I just hate batteries!

 

[ArmandV]

If gas prices were $7.50 in America people would be yelping!

In California, the price for unleaded is about $4.53/gallon and we're already yelping. One advantage to being unemployed is that I haven't had to buy too much fuel.

If we had a transit system in Los Angeles roughly comparable to Tokyo's, nobody here would be yelping.

 

[tada]

I live outside of reasonable biking distance, so unfortunately I just have to deal with however much gas costs. I'm just trying to drive less. I'm hoping to move to Japan so I don't have to ever buy gas again, and if I can't make it there, I'm going to try and live within biking distance of a job.

 

[Goldiegirl]

ArmandV...you hit the nail on the head. There used to be a rapid transit system in Milwaukee, but it was shut down, because the politicians at that time had stock in the petroleum companies, and the automobile manufacturing companies. They said busses were better. Ha, what a load of lies. The buss isn't better. I'd rather be stuck in my car in traffic than stuck in buss. We have so called car pool lanes, but all they do is cause back-ups and no one is getting anywhere faster and we are all just idling using even more fuel. They tried a train route from near where I live to Milwaukee on to Chicago, but they stopped it because people weren't using it. Well they had all these odd hours and times. People don't want to have to get to a train stop at 4am to get to work at 5am when they don't start till 8 or 9am! The politicians didn't want it to work. They want us dependent on oil. As much as I hate crowds and cramped spaces, the train system in Japan is great, fast, efficient, clean and on time! Yay! I used the underground in London and found that easy to use as well...